A little public service announcement, and an acknowledgement before we begin.
Oct. 7 marks the day ballots will be sent out to all Santa Cruz County voters. If you get them in early, it gives us all a better chance of knowing the local elections’ outcome on Election Night.
Monday also marks one year since tensions in Israel and Gaza escalated to an all-out, bloody war. I’m not equipped to make any sort of broad, all-pleasing comment on it. But it’s important to acknowledge how the war has shaped the world over the past 366 days, and our politics, both national and local. May peace come soon.
Cigarette ban, soda tax put local targets on industry titans
The calendar says fall began two weeks ago but my senses tell me we remain in the long grip of summer. Autumn, the season of change, for me really begins with those subtle shifts in breeze, temperature and palette.
“Time for change …” is what District 3 Supervisor Justin Cummings texted me on Thursday, with a link to item 11 on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors’ Tuesday agenda. Cummings and his colleagues will take their first vote on a new law banning the sale of filtered tobacco products in the county’s unincorporated areas. Translation: no more manufactured cigarettes on store shelves.
Cummings, a former smoker of 10 years, said the “change” was aimed primarily at cigarettes’ harmful effects on the environment, not the body. Tobacco for rolling, chewing, dipping and otherwise will remain available for sale if the ordinance passes. Marlboro Reds and Camel Lights, however, not so much.
Cummings and District 1 Supervisor Manu Koenig have been working with the community for over a year to ban cigarette filters, a too-common contributor to litter. Blame the silver screen and suave cigarette flicks of Humphrey Bogart or James Dean, but at some point, our culture normalized mindlessly tossing these plastic filters wherever. A 2023 report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that cigarette butts accounted for 23% of all debris collected on Monterey Bay beaches between 2017 and 2021. If you’ve seen the “ban the butt” slogan around town and were confused, cigarettes’ are the butts the county hopes to ban.
Eliminating filtered cigarettes from the county’s shops would be no small change. But it’s not the first time local politicians have been willing to target the harmful effects of major industries with local policies.
“Ban the butt” arrived in the local lexicon around the same time as “Yes on Z,” the slogan for the city of Santa Cruz group behind a ballot measure proposing a 2-cent per fluid-ounce tax on the distribution of certain sugar-sweetened beverages. Measure Z has drawn Coke, Pepsi, Dr Pepper and Red Bull into the local election, which together have invested nearly $1 million into ads, a ground game, campaign consultants and law firms in their attempt to kill the proposal.
The proponents’ argument is twofold. First, the tax is estimated to raise more than $1 million in revenue for the city’s general fund. Similar taxes in other cities have also been shown to reduce the sale of soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages, according to some studies, which proponents see as a win for the overall health of the community. The opponents, funded primarily by that Big Soda triumvirate of Coke, Pepsi and Dr Pepper (with a little help from Red Bull), criticize the measure as imposing a regressive tax that will directly harm low-income communities already feeling the pressure of the area’s affordability crisis.
For Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley, this brought back memories of 1985, when 82% of city of Santa Cruz voters passed a measure that helped thwart an expansion of oil drilling off California’s coast. That measure, which sparked a battle with Big Oil, mandated that any proposed zoning changes aimed at accommodating onshore facilities for offshore oil drilling must first be approved by a vote of the electorate. The Santa Cruz ordinance set off a trend among California’s coastal communities, which went on to pass similar rules.
“We’re comfortable with our values and articulating them into public policy,” Keeley said. “We’re a community that believes in creativity and initiative.”
Cummings said he doesn’t expect the same kind of reaction from Big Tobacco, in part because the supervisors aren’t taking the issue to voters in a public referendum.
“I don’t think the tobacco industry sees Santa Cruz County as a major piece of the industry,” Cummings said. “People will still be able to smoke, and if people want to smoke, that’s their choice. But we’re trying to address the pollution aspect of this.”
OF NOTE
District 5 candidates split with supervisors’ response to CZU investigation: The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors deflected criticism from a recent civil grand jury investigation that found the county’s disaster response plan failed fire victims. The two candidates running to replace Supervisor Bruce McPherson in District 5, Monica Martinez and Christopher Bradford, pushed back, saying the supervisors’ response to the investigation did not align with what they heard from residents and victims.
Workbench sues Santa Cruz City Council over the Food Bin: Local developer and architectural firm Workbench has joined Food Bin owner Doug Wallace in suing the Santa Cruz City Council over its decision to shrink the proposed five-story, 59-unit redevelopment of the bodega-styled grocery store along Mission Street. The lawsuit will test the limits of a city council’s power over certain proposed housing developments. The sides are due to meet in court in December.
Survey the landscape of the Capitola and Scotts Valley city council races: In Capitola, two open seats have drawn one incumbent, two former candidates and a political newcomer to the ring. In Scotts Valley, one incumbent and six newcomers are battling for three open seats on the city council dais. Both cities are navigating their own changes in how and where they grow; both ballots offer a diverse menu of candidates.
POINTS FOR PARTICIPATION
Get smart on California’s prop smorgasbord: Voting Californians will be asked to weigh in on 10 state propositions this fall. If you can name all 10 propositions and the arguments for and against, congratulations on your civics gold star. If you are like most voters and struggle to name even two or three of the propositions, then I invite you to Bookshop Santa Cruz on Wednesday, Oct. 16, for the Lookout x CalMatters crash course on voter props. After all, democracy depends on educated voters.
Santa Cruz City Council looks at ADU law: Major updates are ahead to the city’s rules around accessory dwelling units. The city council on Tuesday will take up changes approved by the city’s planning commission last year. If approved, the city will no longer require property owners live on site in order to rent out one of the units; property owners would also be allowed to sell their ADU as a condo. The council will meet on Tuesday at 1:40 p.m.
“We Vote” rally outside Santa Cruz courthouse: Local political dignitaries and community organizers will host a rally Monday at 5:30 p.m. outside the county courthouse, marking the first day of early voting and attempting to energize the electorate into a high turnout. Rally speakers include Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley, County Clerk Tricia Webber, Supervisor Justin Cummings, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Peter Gelblum, Capitola Vice Mayor Yvette Brooks and political organizer Joe Thompson.
Candlelight vigil to mark one year of war in Gaza: The Panetta Vigil for Human Rights in the Middle East formed earlier this year to send a message of disagreement with Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s support of Israel. To mark one year since the latest conflict began, the group will host a candlelight vigil at the Santa Cruz town clock at 6:30 p.m. Monday.
ONE GREAT READ
“The Beautiful Changes,” by Richard Wilbur (2004)
There is a defined and direct thread from my childhood obsession with Shel Silverstein to my sitting here right now, typing this newsletter as a professional journalist. Poetry was my first, and still deepest, love in the art of words. Silverstein eventually gave way to my adolescent obsession with lyrical rap, from Lil Wayne to Kendrick Lamar, which then led me back to Mary Oliver (“The Sun” and “The Arrowhead”) and Robinson Jeffers (“Vulture” and “For Una”). Personally, I’ve still not found a better poem than Gerard Manley Hopkins’ absolutely exquisite and lyrical “Spring and Fall.”
Today, I leave you with an autumnal poem from Richard Wilbur, a meditation on our relationship to nature with a wholly unique cadence that I am still trying to figure out. Let me know what you think, and if you have any recommendations of other poets and poems, please share!